A flat flexible electrical circuit conventionally includes an elongated flat flexible dielectric substrate having laterally spaced strips of conductors on one or both sides thereof. The conductors may be covered with a thin, flexible protective layer on one or both sides of the circuit. If protective layers are used, cutouts are formed therein to expose the underlying conductors at desired contact locations where the conductors are to engage the conductors of a complementary mating connecting device which may be a second flat flexible circuit, a printed circuit board or the terminals of a mating connector.
A wide variety of zero insertion force electrical connectors have been designed particularly adapted for terminating flat circuits, such as flat flexible circuits, flexible printed circuit boards and the like. These electrical connectors conventionally have a housing mounting a plurality of terminals in a generally parallel array spaced along an elongated opening or slot for receiving an end of the flat circuit. Typically, these connectors use actuators to push the flat circuits, flexible printed circuit boards or the like against resilient contact portions of the terminals.
The actuators of these flat circuit connectors typically are movable between a first position allowing free insertion of the flat circuit into the elongated opening or slot in the housing, and a second position wherein a pressure plate portion of the actuator biases the circuit against the contact portions of the terminals. For instance, the pressure plate biases the exposed conductors of a flat circuit against the contact portions of the terminals.
Major problems continue to plague such connectors, particularly in the areas of cost, size, operability and reliability. With the ever-increasing miniaturization of electronic circuitry, it has become desirable to provide connectors for flat circuits as thin as possible. It is desirable to provide some form of temporary holding means on the connectors for preliminarily holding the flat circuit. It also is desirable to provide some sort of means to hold the actuator in one or both of its positions on the connector housing. Providing these features or means are difficult with extremely small or miniaturized connectors. The present invention is directed to solving one or more of these problems and satisfying such needs.